Book List 2015

Fiction:

Farewell to the East End (Jennifer Worth)

Longbourn (Jo Baker)

Pilgrim’s Inn (Elizabeth Goudge)

The Bird in the Tree (Elizabeth Goudge)

The Heart of the Family (Elizabeth Goudge)

Anne’s House of Dreams (LM Montgomery)
North and South (Elizabeth Gaskell)

Hannah Coulter (Wendell Berry) - my first foray into Wendell Berry, looking forward to more!

A Child’s Christmas in Wales (Dylan Thomas)

Non-fiction:

The Geography of Nowhere (James Howard Kunstler)

Timeless Simplicity: Creative Living in a Consumer Society (John Lane)

A Year of No Sugar (Eve O. Schaub)

The Dorito Effect (Mark Schatzker)

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Marie Kondo)

Education:

When Children Love to Learn (Elaine Cooper)

The Three R’s (Ruth Beechick)

And selections from:

A Charlotte Mason Companion (Karen Andreola)

Educating the WholeHearted Child (Sally and Clay Clarkson)

The Well-Educated Mind (Susan Wise Bauer)

Spiritual:

On Hope (Josef Pieper)

The Gospel of the Kingdom (George Eldon Ladd) - excellent, worth revisiting

The Little Oratory (Leila Lawler & David Clayton)

Real Worship (Warren Wiersbe)

Whole Prayer (Walter Wangerin)

The Pursuit of God (A.W. Tozer)

Preemptive Love (Jeremy Courtney)

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (Shane Claiborne)

With the kids:

(In addition to dozens and dozens of picture books and poetry selections!)

Little House in the Big Woods (L. I. Wilder)

The BFG (Roald Dahl)

Old Mother West Wind (Thornton W. Burgess)

In progress:

How to Pray (R.A. Torrey)

A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)

Most influential:

Pilgrim's Inn by Elizabeth Goudge

I'd have to say the most influential book for me this year was Pilgrim's Inn. It's the first of Goudge's books I've read, and it came at just the right time. There's something about a well-crafted story that has the power to teach and transform and travel deep into the soul. This is the sort of book I want to hunt down a beautiful older edition of to read again and again. 

Real Worship by Warren Wiersbe

This was another one of those timely books, and I think I absorbed its essence rather than remembered its principles. I love it when that happens. It expanded my view of and approach toward worship.

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne

This book, a gift from Micah last Christmas, journeyed with me through the year as I set out live a more intentional life of prayer. It was key in forming a habit of morning prayer for me. Even now I start the day with this line going through my head: O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun...

What were your most influential reads of 2015?

What are your recommendations or would-love-to-reads for 2016?

~lg

Book List 2014

I feel quite sure I've left something out! But here is what I remembered to record:

Les Miserables (Victor Hugo) – On last year’s list, but I think it should count for 2014 too!

The Snow Queen (Hans Christian Andersen) - The original "Frozen" 

Anything (Jennie Allen)

The Birth House (Ami McKay) - Library book club

The Sisters Brothers (Patrick deWitt) - Library book club favourite 

Water For Elephants (Sara Gruen) - Library book club

Too Busy Not To Pray (Bill Hybels)

Anne’s House of Dreams (L.M. Montgomery) - Perennial favourite

Capital (John Lanchester)

Follow Me (David Platt)

Meditative Prayer (Richard Peace)

Toilet Training in Less Than A Day (Nathan H. Azrin & Richard M. Foxx) - truly life changing, ha! 

The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) - Re-immersion in Middle Earth 

Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview and Cultural Formation (James K. A. Smith) - excellent

The Mystery of Marriage (Mike Mason) - Highly recommended

Dared to Believe (Andrew Barron & Lindsey Gallant) - Revisiting what I wrote 7 years ago!

Rilla of Ingleside (L.M. Montgomery) - I cried this time

The Midwife (Jennifer Worth) - The real story behind the Call the Midwife series

Shadows of the Workhouse (Jennifer Worth)

Documents of Christian Worship (James F. White)

What's the best book you read in 2014? Any suggestions for must reads in 2015?

~lg

Book List 2013

The tally:

5 fiction
1 biography
3 theology/Christian life
6 nonfiction (mostly education/parenting related)
15 total

This year I also did a lot of reference reading in garden books and commentaries on Luke and Acts (part of a Bible study).

Persuasion (Jane Austen)

Phantastes (George MacDonald)

The Hurried Child (David Elkind)

Desperate (Sarah Mae & Sally Clarkson)

Lillian’s Story (Lillian Kristensen & Jessie Chapin)

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child (Anthony Esolen)

Casti Connubii: Encyclical on Christian Marriage (Pope Pius XI)

Boys  Adrift (Leonard Sax)

The Well-Trained Mind (Susan Wise-Bauer & Jessie Wise)

The Kalahari Typewriter School for Men (Alexander McCall Smith)

The Wanderings of Odysseus (Rosemary Sutcliff)

Why Gender Matters (Leonard Sax)

The Well-Educated Mind (Susan Wise Bauer)

The Ministry of Motherhood (Sally Clarkson)

A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle)

In progress: Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)

Most influential: Les Miserables, though I haven't finished it yet! (Around 700 pages in.) This for a combination of style, story and substance - it's a classic for a reason. It's fiction, it's history, but also theology. The life of the Bishop of Digne alone is a weighty challenge to embody Christ's love in the world. 

On the wish list for this year...

Jane Austen - either Emma or Northanger Abbey

More fiction! Any suggestions?

~lg

Book List 2012

Here is the list of books I read in 2012. (I feel I might be missing something, but I can't think what it is!) I still have a number of books on the go that will make it into the 2013 list. The numbers are down since last year, but having children will do that to a person!

The tally:
8 fiction
6 theology/Christian life
4 nonfiction
18 total

Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

Everything I Want to Do is Illegal – Joel Salatin

The Frozen Thames – Helen Humphreys

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare

Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem On the Dignity and Vocation of Women – Pope John Paul II

La’s Orchestra Saves the World – Alexander McCall Smith

Eschatology: A Futurist Perspective – Thomas L Holdcroft

Mysterious Apocalypse – Arthur Wainwright

The Mission of Motherhood – Sally Clarkson

Heart and Home: A Reaffirmation of Traditional Mothering – Debra Evans

The VBAC Companion – Diana Korte

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth – Ina May Gaskin

The Art of Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein

Canadian Pie – Will Ferguson

The Virgin Cure – Ami McKay

Jane of Lantern Hill – LM Montgomery

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis (read aloud to my nephew!)

Healing Through the Centuries – Ronald Kydd

~lg

Book List 2011

Here is my completed book list for this past year! My count is actually up from last year. (I must have taken advantage of Arden's excellent napping routine!) The list includes many "children's" books (some read aloud to Arden), but I happen to think they are written just as much for adults and make up an essential part of any serious reader's library. :)

The tally:
20 fiction
10 theology/Christian life nonfiction
3 general nonfiction
33 Total


Anne of Windy Poplars (LM Montgomery)
Anne’s House of Dreams (LM Montgomery)
The Great Dance (C. Baxter Kruger)
Love the One You’re With (Emily Giffin)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Church, World and the Christian Life (Nicholas Healy)
The Abolition of Man (CS Lewis)
The Challenge of Easter (NT Wright)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (CS Lewis)
The Silver Chair (CS Lewis)
Now We Are Six (AA Milne)- read aloud to Arden
Little House in the Big Woods (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Little House on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Farmer Boy (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Winnie-the-Pooh (AA Milne)- read aloud to Arden
The House at Pooh Corner (AA Milne)- read aloud to Arden
On the Banks of Plum Creek (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Cinderella Ate My Daughter (Peggy Orenstein)
By the Shores of Silver Lake (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
After You Believe (NT Wright)
One Thousand Gifts (Ann Voskamp)
Little Town on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
These Happy Golden Years (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
The First Four Years (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Habits of a Child’s Heart(Valerie E. Hess & Marti Watson Garlett)
Faith Begins at Home (Mark Holmen)
The Eagle of the Ninth (Rosemary Sutcliff)
Room (Emma Donoghue)
The Wilder Life (Wendy McClure)
On the Incarnation (St. Athanasius)
At the Heart of the Gospel: Suffering in the Earliest Christian Message (L. Ann Jervis)

Various Fairy Tales including:
East O’ the Sun and West O’ the Moon (George Webbe Dasent, illustrated by PJ Lynch)
The Snow Queen (Hans Christian Andersen)
The Twelve Dancing Princesses (illustrated by Kinuko Y. Craft)

And of course countless board books and picture books!

~lg

Book List 2010

Completed books:

What to Expect When You’re Expecting (Heidi Murkoff)
The Blythes are Quoted (L.M. Montgomery)
Anne of Avonlea (L.M. Montgomery)
Anne of the Island (L.M. Montgomery)
Impossible (Nancy Werlin)
Committed (Elizabeth Gilbert)
The Giver (Lois Lowry)
The Meaning of Tradition (Yves Congar)
Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart (Beth Pattillo)
Churched (Matthew Paul Turner)
The Wednesday Letters (Jason F. Wright)
Fever Crumb (Phillip Pullman)
Selected Columns from Canadian Living (Peter Gzowski)
When We Were Very Young (A. A. Milne)
Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
Beyond Belfast (Will Ferguson)
What French Women Know (Debra Ollivier)
The Church, World and the Christian Life (Nicholas M. Healy)
The Bishop’s Man (Linden MacIntyre)


Books in progress:

Hospitality and the Other (Amos Yong)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)
Miracles (C. S. Lewis)
The Sunny Side (A.A. Milne)

Book List 2009

Here it is, a list of the books I got around to reading in 2009:

The Shack - William Paul Young
The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. IV
A Tangled Web - L.M. Montgomery
Heaven's Calling - Leanne Payne
Listening Prayer - Leanne Payne
The Book of Negroes - Lawrence Hill
Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. V
The Scarlet Thread - Francine Rivers
Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings - Mary Henley Rubio
The Practice of the Presence of God - Brother Lawrence
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
Mrs. Mike - Benedict & Nancy Freedman
Evangeline - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Secret Garden* - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay
After Many Days - L.M. Montgomery
No Great Mischief - Alistair Macleod
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger
Surprised by Hope - N.T. Wright
A Highland Christmas - M.C. Beaton
Anne of Green Gables* - L.M. Montgomery
Advent Readings from Iona


* books I re-read for fun

25 in all. Of course, there were many others I started and never finished, or have started and mean to finish in 2010! I tried to read more fiction this year, simply because I haven't read it in a long time. My theology count is a little low (recovery from MTS mode?), but there are many theological books I've skipped around in. Maybe I'll make a theological hopscotch list later.

~lg